The 9 Elements of an Awesome Law School Admission Essay

A good personal statement for law school can make an application stand out from the crowd.

While LSAT score and undergraduate GPA are the primary factors for admission into law school, top programs get far more qualified applicants than they can admit. The personal statement is a means by which you can stand out from the mass of your fellow applicants. But what is the best way to construct an outstanding personal statement?

The personal statement should show reflection and introspection. It should give the admissions committee a glimpse into who you are, your motivations, and your personal history. A successful statement will give details of your life that will allow the admissions officers to understand:

• Why you would be a good candidate to attend their school?
• Why a career in law is a good fit for you?
• What do you have to offer that makes you distinct from other candidates.?
  There’s many ways to write a successful statement that will achieve these goals, but here are the primary considerations you should have while writing your personal statement.

1. Tell a story

The personal statement should be a focused narrative about your life. Your goal is to tell a story, either of a particular experience or a series of interrelated experiences, that both demonstrates why you would be an excellent candidate for law school, and why you are interested in pursuing the study of law.

The second of these two factors — why you want to be a lawyer — need not be the focus of your essay. In many essays, it’s best addressed in a conclusion that relates the story you’ve told in some way to an interest in law.

2. Decide what you want to show about yourself

Make sure you choose a story that will demonstrate one or more characteristics that are appealing to law school admissions committees. Address traits like intellectual curiosity, persistence, initiative, passion, compassion, and integrity. Also consider whether there are particular skills you want to highlight, such as leadership, communication, analysis, and creative problem solving.

3. Make a strong first impression

Your first paragraph is your first impression. I want you to imagine what it’s like to read law school application after law school application. The personal statement is where an applicant wants to stand out. How many of those statements do you think have opening lines that are some variation on “I first realized I wanted to be a lawyer when…”?

One of the easiest ways to make that first paragraph compelling is to jump right into the story you want to tell. Start with a particularly vivid or descriptive scene. Pull the reader into the story. Make your reader interested in what happens next, or how a problem will be resolved or how a question will be answered. A memorable beginning will make for a memorable personal statement.

4. Don’t use the personal statement to explain something bad

There is a part of the application specifically included for you to explain any unusual circumstances (e.g. really low grades one semester). You want your personal statement to focus on something positive, though that something positive can certainly be your having overcome a major obstacle or challenge.

5. Respect word and page limits

As a general rule, schools request that your personal statement be about two pages double spaced. Respect those limits. To do otherwise implies that you don’t follow directions and that you don’t respect the time of the members of the admissions committee.

6. Don’t be redundant

Don’t waste your personal statement giving information that will be clear from other parts of your application. Your resume (you should always submit a resume whether the law school asks for one or not) will cover major awards or accolades, so there’s no need to mention them unless they advance the story you want to tell.

7. Show, don’t tell

Use specific details in your story the show the reader what you want them to know about you. Anyone can say “I am persistent.” The right story will show you are persistent, which is much more convincing.

8. Find a great proofreader

When you work hard on a piece of writing, it can be difficult to be objective about what you’ve done. Make sure you have at least one excellent writer go over your personal statement, both to provide feedback on how effective it is and to spot those tiny grammatical and spelling errors you might not notice yourself.

9. Tailoring the law school essay can be great, as long as you don’t forget you’ve done it!

It can be a really nice touch to add details in your statement about why you would be a particularly great fit at a given school. Just don’t send those details to any other school! If Fordham gets an essay discussing why you’d be a great fit at Saint John’s, Fordham will be quite a bit less likely to let you in!

If you follow the advice above, you should be able to craft a personal statement that will help you stand out to the admissions committee.

Good luck! And remember, the bottom line is: grab your readers and tell them a compelling story about why you would be a great law student.

Questions or feedback? Email editor@noodle.com